


A Ghost at the Back

by gotatheory



Series: Flicker Beat Verse [7]
Category: Once Upon A Time - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Inspired by OQ, Multi, Polyamorous relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 11:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16062065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotatheory/pseuds/gotatheory
Summary: Flicker Beat Verse. Zelena returns, and Regina gives her sister a chance.





	A Ghost at the Back

**Author's Note:**

> For Inspired by OQ. Inspired by [this art](https://twitter.com/lau_p_g/status/1028412625124839425) by [lau_p_g](https://twitter.com/lau_p_g).
> 
> A brief note: In Flicker Beat, Zelena was Marian, but she never raped Robin and therefore was not pregnant. Instead of bringing her back to Storybrooke, Regina left her in New York. Title taken from the song "[Up the Wolves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el-ZrpQybXM)" by The Mountain Goats.
> 
> As of 4/11/19: Formerly titled "When the Wolf Comes Home."

_There’ll always be a few things, maybe several things_  
_That you’re going to find really difficult to forgive_

The moment he sees that wicked witch standing on the other side of the townline, Robin knew she would bring nothing but trouble. He wishes he could convince Regina to walk away, to pretend that they couldn’t see her, like she wasn’t even there. Instead, he’s standing there as Regina and the Charmings debate what to do, whether to let her in or not, listening as Zelena goes on and on about needing help, about how she’s changed, how she’s ready to be a family now. And that’s the final nail, Robin knows, because he sees the shift in Regina’s demeanor when Zelena says those words. She might as well have cast a spell on her.

He should be more understanding, considering both of his loves needed second chances and people to believe in them, accept them. It’s been three years, and perhaps Zelena really has changed, and he should try to forgive. But he can’t, he’s not ready, even though he knows Regina is. She’d balk if he said as much, but it’s in her nature now to give second (second, second, second) chances after the life she’s lived. He doesn’t begrudge Regina that spark of hope she carries around now, how could he?

So no, he isn’t ready to forgive the way Zelena murdered his wife and took her place, how she manipulated his son into thinking his mother was alive (and Roland still doesn’t know the truth of that time, remembers absolutely none of it, and his stomach sickens at the thought that he might find out now), how all of it was an elaborate plot designed to hurt Regina and damn the collateral damage. But he keeps that to himself, balling his hands into fists as Regina lifts the spell, and hopes for her sake that Zelena has truly changed.

(He thinks he might be the only one that noticed that during Zelena’s tirade on the other side of the townline, she didn’t apologize once, not even when Regina lifted the spell. Still, he stays silent, glaring daggers as the witch says, “Oh, _finally_. I’ve been here all bloody morning.”)

He should be more open, more accepting, but all Robin can think is that Zelena doesn’t appear to have changed a damned thing.

~ | ~

Robin keeps his distance from the witch, something Regina doesn’t press him about, thankfully. He knows she wants him to give her a chance; he’s seen it in the almost hurt looks she casts his way whenever the subject comes up. And she might not be speaking to him about it, but she’s certainly talking to Maleficent about it — but then again, so is he. It’s not fair to Mal in some ways, putting her in the middle of this, but she listens to Robin as he explains how he just cannot do this, how he doesn’t have a single kind word to say about Regina’s sister, how his usual encouraging ways fail him when it comes to this one particular person, how his skin crawls and his blood runs cold just knowing she’s in this town with them.

Indeed, Mal listens and nods as he rants one evening, mildly offering up, “I still have nightmares about Snow and Charming stealing Lily.”

Robin already knows that, of course, has comforted her more than once when she’s woken in the middle of the night. He gets the feeling she’s not finished speaking, and he’s right.

“But Regina loves them, whether she readily admits it or not. They’re her family and they mean a lot to her,” she continues with a heavy sigh. “So I put up with them, and put aside the fear that they might steal the people I love most away from me again.”

He frowns at that. “You think I should forgive her,” he says, almost accusatory. Irrational though it may be, he expected her to be on his side. (There shouldn’t be sides at all, his conscience tells him.)

“I think that you love Regina, and sometimes we put up with people we dislike for the people we love,” she replies, as unfazed as ever. It’s not often that he’s reminded of her literal centuries of experience, until it’s a conversation like this, where she’s so calm and even. He thinks of what all she’s seen, everything’s dealt with in her long life, what she must have went through to become so wise, and he wants to wrap her in his arms and thank her for loving him. “Furthermore, I don’t think putting up with the people we dislike — or even hate — is the same as forgiving them.”

Robin does wrap her in his arms then, crossing over and pulling her into an embrace that she quickly reciprocates. “I love you,” he says into the crook of her neck, and really, she’s holding him now, her arms holding him tight to her as his body almost sags under the weight of his emotions.

“I love you, too,” Mal murmurs to him, kissing his brow. “And so does Regina.”

He moves his head in a nod as much as he can, considering their proximity. And then he stays there for a while, in Mal’s warm, comforting embrace, gentle tears rolling down his face as he thinks about the wicked witch.

~ | ~

It’s still too soon, he decides. Maybe one day he can put up with having Zelena in his life, but right now, he avoids her as much as he can. He’s told Regina as much, too, that he’ll try to… if not forgive, at least _accept_ her sister as a part of their lives, but he needs more time. More than a week to get used to the idea, at the very least. It hurts Regina to hear, he knows, but she put on a brave face. And for a while, everything is okay. He doesn’t see Zelena all that much, making sure to avoid her, and Regina is careful to visit her cottage rather than have her over to the house (though he’s told her it’s okay, so long as he isn’t there).

It’s fine, it’s been fine, until he walks into his house and she’s sitting there on the couch, bouncing his daughter on her knee, and he sees red.

“Regina!” he shouts, voice loud and booming and frightening, as Thalia abruptly goes from laughter to tears. “REGINA!”

Regina rushes in, just as he’s storming over to Zelena and rescuing his child from her clutches, her brow furrowed with concern, voice worried as she says, “Robin? What’s going on?”

“I wasn’t doing anything!” Zelena shrieks, standing up and backing away. “He just came over and practically _attacked_ me!”

“She was holding Thalia,” Robin says, scowling at her, holding his daughter close and rubbing her back in soothing circles.

“She got fussy, I was only trying to calm her down,” she defends. “Please, do you think I’d hurt a child?”

Before Robin can say an emphatic _Yes!_ , Regina points out, “You don’t exactly have the best track record with babies.”

Zelena rolls her eyes, and pouts, and tosses her hair like a child having a tantrum. “Well, one could say the same about your track record with people. You’ve certainly killed more than me, and yet you get carte blanche to do whatever you want, but I try to use a baby for a spell _one time_ and I’m branded for life.”

He frowns, his eyes flicking from the witch he wants out of his life to his soulmate, and his frown deepens. Zelena always knows what to say to twist the knife, to trigger Regina’s guilt. Now is no different; she goes from annoyed and on edge to placating.

“No, don’t say that, Zelena,” she says, enough to make Robin roll his eyes, but it’s her next sentence that has him scoffing. She tells her, “We know you’ve changed,” and it takes everything in him to keep from saying he knows no bloody such thing.

Maybe he’s being unfair, unreasonable even, but there are some lines that he cannot have crossed. “Regina, I can’t have her here right now.” His voice doesn’t waver, he’s almost proud of how calm he sounds, but he hopes she can hear his desperation. “I don’t want her around the children.”

“What?” Zelena screeches, setting Thalia off to crying again, and Robin glares at her. “I haven’t _done_ anything!”

“Wait, Zelena, just be quiet a moment,” Regina says, turning to him. “Let’s try and be fair to her, Robin. She didn’t actually do anything; I only stepped out of the room for a moment to fix some tea. Thalia didn’t seem like she was in trouble…”

“She was laughing before this buffoon yelled and scared her,” Zelena grumbles in a way that she clearly thinks is helping.

“Zelena!”

“Regina.” Robin injects as much pleading as he’ll allow, but right now, at this moment, he cannot deal with this woman. All he can think about is the glamour charm that turned her into Marian, the way Marian had seemed so off with Roland, how Roland would cry sometimes because he didn’t understand why his mama was so snappish and quick to temper with him. All the signs Robin had missed, that he had outright ignored, because he was so caught up in his pain and turmoil over not being with Regina, determined to make things work with his wife. “I don’t want her around the children.”

Regina hesitates at that, a sort of stuttering flicker of emotion crossing her face, but before he can think too much about it, Zelena is whining again. “Really? Are you going to let him talk about me like that, Regina?” she scowls, crossing her arms under her chest. “I’m your _sister_ , you know.”

“Be quiet, Zelena!” she snaps, turning suddenly and glowering at her. “I know you’re trying, we all know you’re trying, but Robin needs some time.”

“He’s had _three years_ to get over it—”

“ _It_?” Robin blinks at her, incredulously. “By _it_ , you mean murdering my wife, impersonating her, and then tricking me into moving to another city with you, with my son?”

“Robin!”

“No, Regina! She hasn’t even apologized for what she did, how she hurt all of us, and you might be able to look past it, but I can’t. I need her out of here, and most of all, I need her to stay the hell away from my children!”

He barely notices the way she winces, but at least she’s firmly telling her sister to leave, over any protests Zelena puts up. The witch scowls and whines and moans the entire time, talking about how terrible it is that no one believes her, but at least she gets the hell out. When Regina returns to the living room, shoulders tense and a frown on her face, Robin sighs.

“Thank you for getting her out,” he murmurs, bouncing Thalia in his arms. She coos and giggles, reaching up for his chin, trying to grasp his beard.

Regina is quiet, doesn’t respond at all, and that’s what makes him look at her again.

“Regina?”

She chews her lip, contemplatively, and then, “I know what she did was terrible, but… Don’t you think you should give her more of a chance? It’s not like she was hurting Thalia.”

Robin frowns up at her. “After what she did… no. I don’t think I should,” he says, moving to put Thalia in her [word]. “Besides, I’m quite of aware of how she treats children. I’d rather her not be around them at all; it’s safest that way.”

“Snow and David used to say that about me with Henry,” Regina points out, and he sighs.

He knew she would go there. She always does. “That’s different, Regina,” he says softly, scrubbing his hand over his face. He’s tired from this conversation already. “You are Henry’s mother, for one. They had no right to keep you from him. Secondly, you were trying to become a better person for him by that point.”

“Zelena is trying, too. And she’s never going to succeed in it if we keep ostracizing her or treating her like she’s not,” Regina retorts, and when he opens his mouth, she keeps talking. “I know how that feels, Robin, to be totally alone with no one believing in you, and it’s… It’s awful. One of the worst things imaginable. And she’s my _sister_. I have to be there for her.”

“Why? What has ever done for you, except try to kill you? To ruin your life? She didn’t have to impersonate Marian once she got back to Storybrooke. She did that just to hurt you. She pretended to be my wife, she pretended to be the mother of my son _just to cause you pain_. She hasn’t even apologized for it, my Gods!”

“I haven’t personally apologized for all my sins, either, Robin.”

“This is not about what _you’ve_ done, Regina. This is about her. And the reasons why I can’t trust her, and why I especially don’t want her around my children.”

He sees the stone mask fall into place, her eyebrow quirking in a way he usually finds adorable. Now, it’s almost a weapon meant to wound him as much as it is to protect herself as she repeats, “Your children.”

Robin realizes his mistake too late, and even as he tries to fix it, asserting, “That’s not what I—”

“No. It’s exactly what you meant,” Regina murmurs, and despite his exasperated sigh of her name, she stalks out of the living room.

He thinks it best if he doesn’t follow her.

~ | ~

Robin doesn’t speak to Regina for the rest of the evening; he barely sees her, thanks to the large house. Henry is with Hook and Emma, and Roland with his uncles, and Mal out with Lily in a bit of mother-daughter dragon bonding. Regina leaves him to care for Thalia, normally something he wouldn’t be particularly conscious of, but he knows it’s because of what he said. It’s not until Mal comes home, finished with her day out and looking for what he imagines she thought would be a relaxing dinner with Regina and him. To her credit, Regina had prepared dinner. She even let him know it was ready.

So they’re eating in silence when Mal walks in, and immediately, she asks, “What’s wrong?”

Robin looks up at Regina first, curious to see how she’ll respond. The tension in her jaw is obvious, and she’s looking in Mal’s direction, but he can see that she’s not really looking at her.

Silence lingers, until Mal sits down at the table, lacing her hands together as she regards them. “When we started this, we talked about the importance of communication,” she says leadingly. “Talk to me. What’s happened?”

He can’t take it anymore, so he answers, “Zelena was here. She had Thalia.”

Regina rolls her eyes, scoffing. “You don’t have to say it like _that_.” To Mal, she says, “I had stepped out to make some tea. I couldn’t have been gone more than a few minutes when Robin came in. Thalia was fussing, so Zelena picked her up. She didn’t ‘have’ her; Robin exploded.”

This time, he’s the one scoffing and scowling. “She knows how I feel about her sister,” he sneers the word, because while Zelena might be her sister, she’s hardly done anything to deserve the title. “Especially when it comes to the children.”

“Don’t you mean _your_ children?” Regina snaps, and Robin sighs.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he tells her, fruitlessly.

“I can’t say I blame Robin,” Mal says mildly, and that earns her a patented Evil Queen glare mixed with disbelief. “I don’t trust Zelena any further than I could throw her.”

“Really?” Regina is frowning now, her brow all furrowed together. “But… You know what she’s going through, what it’s like for people to doubt and not believe…”

“Yes. And maybe I’m wrong, but I just don’t trust her. She doesn’t seem very open to change.”

“I would have thought if anyone would understand, it would be you.” She stands up, pushing away from the table. “I’m going to bed. For some reason, I’m just not hungry anymore.”

Mal tries to lure her back, standing and talking to her in the hallway, Robin can hear their heated conversation though he can’t make out the words. Regina shouts something final and stalks off, and when Mal returns, there are tears in her eyes.

Robin sleeps on the couch that night, shaking Mal off when she tries to coax him to come to their bed.

~ | ~

Sleep, if one could call it that, is fitful for Robin. The couch is comfortable enough for a short while, but for an entire night, he finds it putting a crick firmly in his back, his neck, an ache down to his bones. Maybe it’s the weight of the fight, too. It’s not the first fight, but it is a serious one, and it’s one of the few times they didn’t all go to bed together since starting this relationship. But Robin can’t face Regina right now, and he knows she doesn’t want to see him either. So he sleeps uncomfortably, and vaguely wakes as Regina walks out the door the next morning.

It might be his dream-addled imagination, but he thinks he heard her linger at the living room doorway.

He gets up soon after, can’t spend another moment on that couch, and then he kisses Mal and Thalia goodbye that morning. “I need fresh air,” he says, and Mal knows what he means.

The Merry Men camp is a second home to him still, but it’s not where he goes. He goes to the forest surrounding it, to the log he still foolishly considers his and Regina’s, where he read a letter not about her. A letter about her sister, and the irony isn’t lost on him, but being here helps him think.

He’s not ready to forgive Zelena. He knows this to be true, the same way he knows he loves Regina and Mal, the same way the sky is blue — it’s simply an immutable fact of the universe. But he doesn’t want to fight with Regina over this forever, and since it seems like Zelena is going to be in their lives more often than not, perhaps he simply needs to suck it up and spend time with her anyway. Maybe that’ll make her less unbearable.

A very unkind part of him that he usually keeps buried deep laughs at the thought that Zelena could ever be bearable.

But three years is a long time, and maybe she has changed, and maybe he’s not giving her enough credit. He just assumes the worst of her. She makes it so easy, but that doesn’t mean he should go with it. Maybe she just needs a little bit of kindness, a bit of belief.

With that thought in mind, he heads back to the mansion, walking in and calling for Mal. No answer, which is strange, but he knows sometimes she’s taking a nap with the baby or keeping quiet to not disturb her. Thalia’s room is his first stop then, but to his surprise, it’s Regina in there.

“Regina?” he says, blinking with confusion. She looks over her shoulder at him, smiling in a way she hasn’t done since yesterday. “I wasn’t expecting you to be home… You should be at the office.”

“I missed my daughter,” she says, and he would expect those words to come with a bit of bite, considering the argument. Oddly, there is no such inflection, no such implication, and she’s still smiling at him. “Thought I’d say hi.”

Robin watches her, judging her mood, and when she doesn’t take a step away, he walks up to her. She’s reaching for Thalia as he places his hands on her hips, gentle, trying not to startle her out of her surprisingly chipper mood.

“Do you forgive me, then?” he murmurs to her, nuzzling the side of her neck.

She tenses then, and he almost pulls away, but she sighs a quiet, “Yes.”

He’s not sure how he got so lucky — maybe Mal managed to talk some sense into her — but he cranes his neck around, prompting her for a kiss that she bestows.

Robin jumps back as if an animal has bitten him, and the person’s eyebrows raise in confusion before shifting into an eerie expression unlike anything he’s ever seen on Regina’s face.

“Go figure,” the not-Regina says, shifting Thalia to her hip so that her right hand is free. Before Robin can lunge for her, she’s twisting her wrist, and he’s frozen in place. “All that time in New York playing your wife and you never realized a bloody thing, but one measly smooch and you can tell I’m not my sister.”

Regina’s face, clothes, her everything melts away, dark hair lightening and brightening to red, brown eyes shifting into blue, and there stands Zelena, holding his daughter.

“NO!” he shouts, or tries to considering every muscle is frozen in place by her magic.

“Oh, don’t worry, daddy,” Zelena snickers. “I’ve got some wonderful plans for your little bundle of joy. Ta.”

Robin can only watch, horrified, frozen, as green smoke surrounds Zelena, sweeping her away with Thalia in her arms.

“Nonononono!” he screams, falling to his knees as the spell holding him in place breaks with the witch’s disappearance. For a moment, he might as well still be under it, holding his face in his hands as his worst possible nightmare comes true.

“Robin!” Maleficent appears in the doorway suddenly, her blonde hair mussed and blood at her temple. She looks a little disoriented, but her eyes focus on the empty toddler bed, a sharp gasp escaping her. “Zelena snuck up on me, knocked me out. Where’s — where’s Thalia?”

“She took her!” Robin sobs, he’s not even ashamed by how wrecked he is by this. “She looked like Regina but when I kissed her, I knew — she was Zelena. And she took Thalia. I couldn’t — I couldn’t stop her. I tried, but…”

Mal grabs him for a moment, tears in her eyes as well, and though she’s hugging him she’s also saying, “We have to find her, Robin. And Regina, what if Zelena has her, too? Do you think she’s at the cottage?”

“I — I don’t know,” he says, trying to think, trying to focus on anything besides what that woman could be doing to their daughter. “Maybe… Maybe Regina’s office. Because that’s where Regina was supposed to be. Maybe she’s there.”

She hesitates, and Robin knows why — they’re losing precious time, seconds ticking by every moment they think about this but going to the wrong place could mean they’ll arrive too late. But they have to start somewhere, and he feels it in his bones: Regina is at her office. He’s positive Zelena won’t be too far away; she’ll want to gloat and hurt Regina. That’s what all this is about, it has to be.

And then, Mal nods, twisting her wrist as silver smoke wraps around her and Robin. He feels a tug around his middle, smells ozone, and his vision momentarily whites out. When it returns, he’s standing in the stark, black-and-white of Regina’s office, slightly disoriented. His blood runs cold as he sees Regina, frozen in place, and Zelena standing in the center of the room, Thalia crying in her arms.

“How nice of you to join us,” Zelena cackles, tossing her red hair over her shoulder. “I wondered if you two would make it before the main event. I guess it’s better to have you all here; makes it easier for me to slaughter you all in front of my dear, darling _sister_.” She sneers at Regina, and Robin looks at her then, taking in the tears spilling over her cheeks, her clenched fists trying to spark with fire but unable to ignite for Zelena’s magic holding her still.

“How dare you!” Maleficent roars, her own fire catching in her palms, and Zelena is quick to motion with her hand, suddenly holding Maleficent as motionless as Regina.

“Now, now,” she smirks, patting Thalia on the back and nuzzling her cheek in a mockery of affection. “You wouldn’t want to harm the baby, would you?”

“Let her go!” Robin growls at her, and he knows he’s no match, but he wants to fight her. Wants to rip Thalia from her arms and protect his daughter, make up for the way he’s failed her. “Why are you doing this? I thought you’d _changed_!”

Zelena laughs outright, rolling her eyes. “That was the point. I needed you to think that I had turned into a goody two-shoes like Regina.” She shakes her head, smugly regarding her sister. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you, Regina? You had to believe that I could change, that I could be better _like you_. As if I should aspire to be _weak_ like you are. Look at what you’ve gotten yourself into. What you’ve put your loved ones into.”

She turns her head, looks directly at Robin. “I thought maybe you would figure it out, convince her that my act was just that: an act. Aren’t you two supposed to be soulmates?” To Regina, she says, “He tried so hard to tell you he didn’t trust me and you just didn’t want to listen. To your true love. How does it feel, knowing you’re going to be the reason he dies?”

“Zelena, please,” Regina whispers, her head trying to shake but she’s held firm in the spell. “Why are you doing this? Just let them go. You don’t have to hurt Thalia; she’s innocent. Kill me instead, it’s what you really want.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, sis. What I really want is for you to hurt,” she smirks, and then shrugs her shoulders. “Hurting your daughter is really just a part of that — but also, I need her. You see, she’s a highly magical being, being borne of two worlds. Dragon and human. And she’s so very, very innocent.” Zelena waves her hand, a green puff of smoke surrounding her palm and then dissipating, revealing a long, jagged crystal in her hand. “The Olympian Crystal needs an innocent soul to open the gates to the Underworld. Did you know, sister dear, that I was in love once?”

“Who could ever love you?” Robin can’t help but spit at her, this woman of utter, irredeemable darkness.

“Quiet, forest boy,” she snaps, centering her glare on him, “or you’ll be the first to go after all. But I think I do want to watch you see your daughter die, knowing it’s all Regina’s fault… Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. I loved someone once, and he loved me. Unfortunately, he’s bound to the Underworld, but being here, in this magical between-the-realms place, and with this Crystal, he can leave. But it requires a bit of… sacrifice.”

She bounces Thalia in her arms, cooing at her, “And aren’t you the perfect sacrifice, baby girl?” As if Thalia can sense the danger, she cries, thrashing a bit in Zelena’s grasp. “No, no, none of that now,” she says, voice sickly sweet as she turns Thalia to face her parents one last time. “Say bye-bye to mummies and daddy, poppet.”

Robin watches, horror struck, unable to move as Zelena places Thalia in a makeshift crib, readying the Crystal in her grasp. It’s then that his muscles react, his body surging forward, but he hears a scream, sees a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, and he’s vaguely aware of Regina rushing past, leaping, and then—

Blue lightning crackling, exploding out, blinding—

His breath sucked out of his body, everything seizing, electricity ripping him in two as Mal’s scream echoes in his ears—

He can’t see, can’t _think_ , every fiber of his being feels like it’s tugged apart—

Awareness blooms slowly, his vision returning, and only one thought surfaces through the haze of pain wracking his body:

_Regina_.

Time slows, and he’s able to see the lightning fading, receding back into the Olympian Crystal, and Zelena, for once in her miserable life, looks well and truly horrified as Regina’s body crumples to the ground, struck by the beam from the Crystal.

Robin runs for her then, danger forgotten, and Mal is there too, reaching for her as he does. He gathers her in his lap, lifting her. His heart stutters in his chest as her head lolls back lifelessly, and he cups her cheek, trying to get her to look at him despite her closed eyes and limp body. “Regina, my love, please,” he whispers to her, “please, don’t die on me.”

“It’s not supposed to be like this,” Mal murmurs, her hands shaking as she grips at Regina’s hip, hovering over her. Her voice trembles as she says, “I can’t — I can’t heal, I need — We need Emma.”

Robin isn’t listening, because all he can think of is their children, and how he hadn’t spoken to her recently without fighting all because of her sister, the woman who is responsible for her death, and that cannot be the end.

Zelena, for her part, has been uncharacteristically silent. But she steps forward, stutters out something — Robin isn’t even sure what, everything feels distant and foggy, his chest aches as he holds Regina in his arms. Mal hears her, though, her head snapping up and he feels the magic and heat rippling out from her as she stands.

“This is your fault!” Maleficent growls, waving her hands and summoning her staff.

“I-I didn’t mean to!” Zelena retorts, something like fear in her voice as Mal rounds on her. “She made me! It was her fault, _she_ jumped in front of the Cryst—ah!”

He looks up through his tears, and Zelena is against the wall, magic pinning her there.

“She loved you,” Mal says, fire in her eyes, sparking. “She believed in you, believed that you could change, that you and her could be sisters. And you threw that all away on, what, some failed romance? Some grudge because Cora abandoned you?”

Zelena goes to speak, trying to stutter something out, but Robin hears the sickening _crack!_ and when he glances back up, her neck is turned at an odd angle before her body slides to the floor.

In his darker moments, he had imagined Zelena dead. A way to avenge Marian, to close off that part of his life that she had invaded. In those times, he thought that maybe he’d feel happy about it, or at least relieved. Safe.

Regina is in his arms, unmoving, not breathing, and he’s not sure he’ll ever feel anything again. He hurts deep inside, an unnameable part that belonged to her, he knows. His soulmate.

“Robin. _Robin_ ,” Mal says, with enough force that he looks up at her, only to see her staring at something above him.

When he looks to see, his heart cracks into more pieces.

“Regina,” he breathes out, barely able to speak around the lump in his throat.

She’s standing there, ephemeral and blue-tinged, sparkling and flickering like a ghost. She’s looking around, eyes unseeing, darting from place to place but never landing on them. “R-Robin? Mal?” she says, voice tinny, garbled. “I… I don’t know where I am. I hope… I hope Thalia is okay. I hope I saved your daughter, and that you stopped my sister.”

Robin feels the tears sliding down his cheeks. “Regina,” he says, standing up, directly in front of her, but there’s no response or acknowledgement. “She’s your daughter too, I’m so sorry I made you think anything different. Please, Regina, please, come back.”

“I don’t know if you can hear me,” she’s saying, speaking over him. “But I love you both so, so much. More than I thought I could love anyone. And our children. Please, tell them I love them, too. Tell Henry… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave him so soon, but I had to… Tell him I was heroic in the end, that his belief in me paid off. He’ll like that, I think.”

“Regina!” Mal shouts, shaking her head, her own tears spilling over. “Please, where are you? How can we—?”

“What do we do?” Robin asks Mal, because she’s the magical one, she must know _something_.

“I-I don’t know. I don’t know what this is, why she’s stuck. I don’t know what that stupid Crystal does.” Mal looks around frantically, trying to find an answer, staring at the Crystal, forgotten on the floor. “Wait. What did Zelena say — she said it needed a soul? I think… It must separate the soul from the body, but Regina is stuck because her soul is tied to yours. You’re soulmates.”

“Can I — how do we bring her back?”

“I’m not sure, I don’t know how this works. Try… try talking to her some more. Maybe somehow you can bring her back to her body?”

Robin kneels back down, cradling Regina to his chest. “Regina, my love,” he murmurs. “Please, listen. I love you, too. And so does Mal, and our children, and we need you. We need you hear, my love.”

He chances a glance at Regina’s soul, watching as she stops shivering and flickering, her arms wrapping around her body. “Robin,” she sighs, and emboldened, he keeps talking to her.

He tells her how Henry needs both of his mothers, that someone has to keep him in line and that Emma just can’t do it. He needs his mom. And Roland, Roland cannot possibly lose another mother, he needs his Majesty to make sure he eats his vegetables and not too much sugar. How Lily still hasn’t had enough time with her, how there is still so much for them to do together.

Mal kneels next to him, gripping Regina’s hand, murmuring too, whispering her love, her devotion, how much they all need her.

“And Thalia,” he says, “she needs you most of all. You know Mal and I are just going to continue to spoil her rotten. You have to be there to teach her the important things, like how to cook a proper lasagna, and how to rule a town, and how best to annoy Snow White.

“Most of all, and most selfishly, I need you. Maleficent needs you. We are not done yet, milady, not at all. What would we do without you? I can’t even imagine it, don’t want to. We love you so much, milady, my love, please. Come back to me. Come back to us,” he whispers, bending down to press his lips to Regina’s.

At the same time, Mal kisses Regina’s hand, holding it tight to her chest, begging her to come back, telling her how much she loves her, too.

Regina’s mouth is slack beneath his own, fresh tears pooling in his eyes as he realizes it must have failed. The warmth starts slowly, a feeling deep is his chest, something mending and coming together.

He pulls back, watching as suddenly Regina’s body surges with breath, and her eyes open.

More tears, and arms wrapped tight, and trembling apologies, and _I love you_ s as the three of them hold each other, tangled together on the floor.

She’s home.


End file.
